With ash now in the air above the Big Island as the volcano is now moving from spewing lava to coughing up ash, are there any XNL's in and out of the Big Island? Knowing how much ash in an engine is not that good for the aircraft, I just thought this could be impacting operations at the airports on the Big Island.

No, it's not a problem. As it stands now, the plume is only going up a couple hundred feet and is pretty much settling down around the Halemaumau crater. The only things that might be affected are the sightseeing helicopter tours, but they're pretty good about knowing where the ash is and avoiding it. There's no impact at all at ITO or KOA.

HAL

One smooth landing is skill. Two in a row is luck. Three in a row and someone is lying.